there really is massive proof that the suppression of medical cannabis represents the greatest failure of the institutions of a free society, medicine, journalism, science, and our fundamental values,” Cowan notes.

Jana – thanks for the info on this – have you considered using fermented plants, dairy, and drinks ?? Check out GAPS – Gut and Psychology Symptoms. Culture your own Keifer – it has 50 strains of a very high QUALITY bacillus. Store yogurt has only 2 strains of low quality bacillus – compromised of artificial sweeteners. Black Tea is a good absorbent of iron (heme) try culturing with a SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) it is called Kombucha tea. You can also ferment water with other varieties of SCOBY grains. And then coconut oil. Coconut oil is really good for skin, gums, and tissue linings, Chia seeds – Damage from sugar (in everything we consume) from infancy – forward has a lot to do with many health issues we (our Industrial Ag) is permitted to promote with out transparency.

Here is a REALLY basic graph.

The only issue I have with the Health Care Reform Act is that it taxes Sun Bed Operators – who provide Vitamin D (UV-B) from light.

Similar to taxing people for eating HEALTHY organic foods, by subsidizing Industrial Agriculture and Chemical Companies – it is they who make us sick. Then they try to convince us they have done something good (green revolution), by lowering the price of PROCESSED food, and keeping us in the dark.

BTW: Sun Beds do NOT cause cancer. That is propaganda (a straw man) promoted by the chemical and pharmaceutical companies to convince people that sun light is toxic. The opposite has been proven over and over again. Lowering our Vitamin D through processed food, and sun scare propaganda, simply makes us SICK.

The medical and cancer care lobbies are powerful (based on fee for service). Thus, they demanded a 10% tax on Vitamin D LIGHT before they would sign off on Obama Care. Again the interest of the Corporatacracy first at the expense of the people.

The YouToons Get Ready for Obamacare: Health Insurance Changes Coming Your Way Under the…

kff.org

In this animated video, the YouToons get ready for Obamacare and explore health insurance changes under the Affordable Care Act. This cartoon serves as a health reform tutorial for consumers and

Here is an easy Health Care subsidy calculator. Bottom line (in general) if you are single earning less than about 40K per year – you probably (depending on age) qualify for some health care assistance. Most of my tax clients are going to like the Health Care reform Act. Won’t make much difference to the rest – though possibly lower government subsidies to the health care industry and consequently in time significantly lower our taxes.However I believe for the next four years (as the Act is implemented) is the time to transform the FDA – reward folks and farmers who eat and grow healthy (non GMO and Processed) foods keeping Industrial Ag out of our stomachs, and Big Pharma out of our pockets.

U.S. history: our recent use of chemical weapons against civilians.”It is estimated that US chemical warfare, authorized by John F. Kennedy in 1961, killed or maimed 400,000 Vietnamese and caused birth defects to 150,000 to 500,000 children. Between 2 million and 5 million Vietnamese were exposed directly to Agent Orange. In 1977, when asked to comment on whether the US has a moral responsibility to help rebuild Vietnam after the war, then then-President Jimmy Carter maintained, that ‘the destruction was mutual’ and that the US should not ‘apologize,’ ‘castigate’ itself or ‘assume the status of culpability.’In Afghanistan and Iraq, the US military used white phosphorous and depleted uranium. In Iraqi Fallujah, which was assaulted by the US Marines in 2004, the increased rates of cancer, leukemia and infant mortality are reported to be higher than among survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.”How much vitamin D is produced from sunlight depends on the time of day, where you live in the world and the color of your skin.My average 20 something client tells me the other day – it cost him $375. to have someone at the emergency room tell him last week – that his ankle probably was NOT broken, to ice it, and keep weight off. Soon- he will be paying about $20 – a month under the Health REFORM Act – and get about four of that kind of visit FREE per year – – depending on the severity addressed at the emergency room – he may have to pay a minimal co-pay of $40.Makes me wonder how many kids walk around in their thirties today – with damaged cartilage and ligaments that lead to pharmaceuticals they need now, to address pain the next 30 years, so they could be prescribed arthritis drugs while the Insurance ELITES point to magnificent water fountains in their massive office lobbies. Because they were able to hammer in pre-existing conditions the past 40 years.I hope we REFORM the medical system starting with the FDA – USDA – National Institutes of Health – and other US International terrorists organizations like the World Health Org. – etc etc – who are really, mostly just shills for the Corporate ELITES (at taxpayer expense).Sorry about the rant I am reading another of Noam Chomsky’s books. Its hard to discuss American Government and Democracy or American health care with a straight face when your reading books about the USA (and the GOP) by people like Chomsky. Actually – its tragic.I have seen this complaint for a long time – its born out of disinformation. First – can we ask Tom Cruz to go off his $40,000. per year health plan paid for by hiis Goldman Sachs wife employer ?? Opps I mean Teddy boy.IN FACT: one of the appeals for an excellent and Congressional STAFF worker – who BTW out number congressional members about 20-to- one and who serve the people (mainly without bribes and campaign contributions) and for not much money – Congress (due to its employment scale) can economically offer the HARD WORKING staff workers – a solid, generous health care plan paid for by the US government.”If its so good – ? then why aren’t you on it” complaint – is an essential tool of Demagoguery, that is vindictiveness out of guilt and BLAME. A primary tool of Demagogues.First of all is does not compare apples with apples – but IDEOLOGUES have much disregard for the reasoning process of FACTS. It is one of the few benefits STAFF workers get (and that the government, as an employer can (in scale) offer and attract talent. The Congressional Representatives have even better benefits, but who cares about what you have earned in the past when you are a freshman member of Congress – or – someone who (for a price) panders to the ELITES.If I have a job as a CEO I get $40K per year health care coverage with extensive benefits – should I compare that to the Affordable Care Act ???? Of course NOT, that would be ridiculous. Obama Care is NOT a one size fits all, is is base line insurance. Is the complaint is: that everyone should have 40K per year health insurance, then I couldn’t agree more !! But The Health Care Reform Act is not meant to address that issue and frankly it is silly to think it should.Affordable Care was not meant to replace USA Congressional health care – and the fact is not everyone can have Ted Cruz or Barrack Obama health insurance. Government is the largest employer it is unrealistic to think they should go on the insurance exchange and buy from an insurance agent, and the broader sense of that issue is why the EMPLOYER Mandate was delayed.The entire issue and many other complaints by the TP are merely subterfuge, and it is a primary tool of demagoguery. That’s what Ted Cruz (TP) is doing – he should be run out of town on a single rail – just like he came in – he is almost as phony baloney as Oil and Coal Company paid climate science denial. Sponsored by the ELITES to distract the purpose, of the PEOPLE.What the freshmen TP boys and girls have in common is clever promotion of ignorance – and deeply enabled funding by the Corporatacracy who pay to spread ignorance and doubt, to gridlock government. There used to be a law in ancient Greek government against Hubris. That (propaganda) ‘s the OCTANE fuel for Plutocracy and GUNS and BUTTER Capitalism. The Corporatacracy THRIVES on deceit. The people FLOURISH on transparency and reasoned truth.

Read Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky. Its required reading in most Colleges today.

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Also the Medical Device Tax is another SILLY surface issue. Because of having – Affordable Health Care the medical device market will have explosive growth – because people will be able to afford prosthetic s, wheel chairs, battery operated medical devices of all kinds, pace makers, on and on – and – someday nano-bot devices. If you are in that business you are going to like Affordable Care – they will have massive increase in sales – a nominal 3% medical device tax should not be a burden to the profit margins on those Corporations.

But of course the Corporatacracy would much rather put those profits in OFFSHORE ACCOUNTS and pay ZERO taxes on them and while we are at it lets shut the IRS down just because those are the kinds of tax scams they have been particularly assigned to look for recently (because that tax evasion is in the hundreds of millions) made off the PEOPLE – so the ELITES found a new Grover Norquist (who gets paid from some deeply shady layered entities with LOTS of CASH) wealthy Muslims with lots of oil. The ELITES new tax messiah is the TP. When Grover and Teddy are not on TV that is what they do – but on TV its all about the little guy who can’t afford this months payroll taxes on his employees.

They could actually less about us – it is easier to take the payoffs and profits and move on to another issue to propagandize against – the PEOPLES work is far too complicated for them.

They are just trying to win (short term thinking based on propaganda and blame) – they should be trying to succeed. That was one of little “w”‘s epiphanies revealed in several books by bob woodard. He realized Iraq wasn’t about winning (as the fascist-neo-conservatives in his cabinet – and Israeli Likud Party (our client state in the mid-east) have had their eyes on the ancient pre-Semitic Aryan homeland for decades now). Opps – anyway – little “w” was simply promoting their agenda thinking it would mean he could WIN. He did LEARN per his last interview with Woodard in 2009 – it should have been about succeeding because that can be measured, inclusively. Winning is mostly about money, exclusivity, and ego perception. They are two very different objectives – in international and national politics its mostly about winning. A fascist mentality pervades the 1% expressed through their political contributions. It really is the opposite of democracy, which the USA has an utter disregard for internationally. But is very much about singular Freedoom (Patriot/Nazis/Fascism) taken to its extreme justifies elimination, destruction, murder, genocide, and it is generally destructive to the masses, who seem to be in the way.

Our government has been owned by the 1% for a long time – the perspective (and larger trajectory) over decades is very different. Noam Chompsky nails this. We must accept the consequences of our Mafioso – Fascist – Neo Conservative – Aryan roots that grew out of the promotion of a caste system long ago, through out much of the ancient world ie India, Ottoman Empire, Feudal Europe, China. That same Oligarchical mentality must eventually turn on itself – through the people – it is the nature of power and evolution. And that mentality very much rules the USA.

The problem for the GOP is their very own self-inflicted gerrymandering has so fractured the GOP they can no longer hold consensus. They have unnaturally combined the extremists in every county or voting district to get a representative place at the table of Congress. Unfortunately it includes some very misinformed people, dumbed down, climate denialist, food poison denialist, Islamphobic, pharmaceutical denialists, who are generally more concerned about their personal racist leanings and security through firearms then about

They are just trying to win (short term thinking based on propaganda and blame) – they should be trying to succeed. That was one of little “w”‘s epiphanies revealed in several books by bob woodard. He realized Iraq wasn’t about winning (as the fascist-neo-conservatives in his cabinet – and Israeli Likud Party (our client state in the mid-east) have had their eyes on the ancient pre-Semitic Aryan homeland for decades now). Opps – anyway – little “w” was simply promoting their agenda thinking it would mean he could WIN. He did LEARN per his last interview with Woodard in 2009 – it should have been about succeeding because that can be measured, inclusively. Winning is mostly about money, exclusivity, and ego perception. They are two very different objectives – in international and national politics its mostly about winning. A fascist mentality pervades the 1% expressed through their political contributions. It really is the opposite of democracy, which the USA has an utter disregard for internationally. But is very much about singular Freedom (Patriot/Nazis/Fascism) taken to its extreme justifies elimination, destruction, murder, genocide, and it is generally destructive to the masses, who seem to be in the way.

Our government has been owned by the 1% for a long time – the perspective (and larger trajectory) over decades is very different. Noam Chompsky nails this. We must accept the consequences of our Mafioso – Fascist – Neo Conservative – Aryan roots that grew out of the promotion of a caste system long ago, through out much of the ancient world ie India, Ottoman Empire, Feudal Europe, China. That same Oligarchical mentality must eventually turn on itself – through the people – it is the nature of power and evolution. And that mentality very much rules the USA.

The problem for the GOP is their very own self-inflicted gerrymandering has so fractured the GOP they can no longer hold consensus. They have unnaturally combined the extremists in every county or voting district to get a representative place at the table of Congress. Unfortunately it includes some very misinformed people, dumbed down, climate denialist, food poison denialist, Islam phobic, pharmaceutical denialists, who are generally more concerned about their personal racist leanings and security in weaponry, then governance and

then governance and social programs that will actually help them. They are generally very impressed with the subtle managed – long term affect of TV and Radio on their psyche, and the lack of interest in any of this kind of discussion, and thus the ability of the 1% to swoop them up as a government tool.

We must end our indirect genocide of other people in third world countries, we incite CIVIL WAR through the CIA/Corporatacracy, to extract THEIR economic resources – its a big issue to resolve. The 1% will simply not accept that THEIR oil is under the feet of other people. Transforming the USA from our international fascist role – (of managed failure) – is a psychopathic fear that the 1% most fear.

Economic extortion is a tool we have honed to an art form in the USA. What the GOP is doing is peanuts compared to what the Corporatacracy (IMF – World Bank – Treaties) do every month of the year for many decades now to destroy the peoples leaders internationally. The 1% will win whether we default on our debt or not. The tactic is used by the 1% – 3% consistently through out the world, its how they get a pound of flesh and grab resources from the people. However, it is blowing back. IE. Rumsfeld as CEO of Searle Food Company (now part of Monsanto and Pfizer) – reconstructed the oversight board and made Aspartame (a known carcinogen at the time) possible in just about every processed thing we eat or drink now, because it is profitable. Of course now we have multitudes of chemicals in our air, water, and food, ever wonder how this all happened, and who benefits the most and the least. It was planned. We are still dealing with that simple example of institutional deceit (35 years ago with Rummy et al)- as it is denied – and more or less accepted now as MAYBE dangerous by most Americans. Aspartame is so prevalent it is rarely included on the label these days, and it goes by a lot of other names. It’s sad how the 1% – 3% have so quickly chemicalized the peole in this country to the bone – and no one is held accountable – and now they want to deny us Affordable Health Insurance by saying it is tyrannical and socialism

raising its evil head. Nevertheless product deceit is considered a LEGAL right in Corp. by-laws today, government regulators expect it because they must ignore it, and manufacturing processes it without question – for many decades now. Eventually it turns back on the perpetrators – but it has been 100 years in the making here in the USA – and it is the basis of how we have extended our global reach. Overall – Managed failure (internationally) for private PROFIT. That keeps third world countries and us in our place !! The propaganda bravado on Corp. media, is that the USA actually promotes democracy – god – or equality – around the world – that is simply ludicrous.

Sorry about the long post – but sort of on topic.

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This article is HALLOW follow up. We should be hearing about Iodine Potassium – kelp supplements – the difference between air fallout -vs- food chain bio-intensification exposure. Not one mention of the thyroid !! Stay out of thick fog like rain – wash your hands when you take off your shoes – wash your garden lettuce well – look for green house grown safe soil – fungi – and microbes intact. The Cesium 137 CLOUD trail of March 11 – 2011 can be counted in premature, in-utero deaths across America. With Cesium 137 time is statistically relevant. Consider growing with community seed banks – 03-11-11 – anything not organic – whether it is GMO or not – is likely now triple poisoned. One of the Cesium 137 STORM clouds -hit Boise – and dumped its contents around March April 2011. There were 8 or 9 – that dropped across the USA, where the premature infant deaths were significantly increased – that time forward. Pay attention to the dates: 11-11-13 thorough 1-11-13. The secret word is they are attempting to dismantle reactor 4, (where all the spent fuel rods are stored) – thousands !!! Accident by the time we hear about it – will have been in progress a few days (corruption) – – so an explosion into the air could cause massive nuclear 3,000 degreee hot AIR plume – at which time we have 3 days to get under protection – and hold still for a while – the fall out from air poses the most immediate alarm to the Pacific NW. It could be one to three orders of magnitude worse the the one March 11, 2011. Which was pretty bad. Pre-natal life is the first to go – so they say – But with that amount of heat – at least more of the Northern Hemisphere will be effected which could mitigate damage to the Pacific NW. After that or in spite of it – massive quantities of Cesium 137 will be taken up by the great North Pacific Kuroshio and California convergence CURRENT – presenting the massive north to south bound stream, embedded with CS 137 water, and wild life, that has a half/life of 30 years and a bio-half life of 300+ years. It will make it onto our shores as all life shines away from rocks and tributaries. The Pacific Salmon et al will be the first to go (probably w/in 5 years). Mercury in any living tissue acts as a catalyst to Cesiumn 137 – by 9 orders – of magnitude. Silly truth protectors – and their lack of meaningful guidelines.

Find out the real story about radiation toxicity from Fukushima in the air, food, and water and how it will impact every living being on earth. Plus, learn the real danger of medical radiation and how to remove it.Dr. Cass Ingram is the author of more than 24 books, including The Cure is in The Cubpoard, How to Eat Right and Live Longer, and The Cure is in The Forest. A popular media personality, he has appeared in over 5000 radio and TV interviews and is a popular international lecturer.

Referring to Corporations and their propaganda – the truth is they BUY votes for a living (mainly for their CEOS and powerful shareholders) and they also buy Congress for a living to subsidize the privatization of profits, leveraging and suspending regulations so the average taxpayer can clean up their economic and environmental messes while they make hundreds of millions and billions per year. Nothing new – it has been going on the past 50 years – or more – only thing changed – its being exposed (a tiny bit) more, mainly because it is so much more prevalent. Read Howard Zinn – “Peoples History of the USA” required reading on most college campuses today, and very different from the history of the USA that we grew up on between the 60’s and early 80’s, advocated by Milton Friedman – Kissinger – and the Chicago boys who brought us the first 9/11 and the disastrous IMF and World Bank. Read John Perkins, “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”, and many others.

Regarding the national debt – the neo-liberal policies of the past 40 years are responsible for most of our, Latin America’s – and Africa’s debt problems – read Noam Chomsky, and Thomas Ferguson. I find it difficult to have a meaningful discussion (non-ideological) about our USA Plutocracy with anyone who hasn’t read about our current and historical economics by the principle academics of our time. Actually ideology is the principle distraction tool of the Corporatacracy (Government and Corporations) so I steer clear of the two party political affliction that most Americans support.

In the international economy 6.5 trillion is a gnat on the back of a whale – nevertheless – it certainly wasn’t caused by the poor, the soldiers, and the middle class. But you can bet it will primarily be paid by those who don’t have tax free offshore accounts. Devaluing the dollar (Inflation) will soon be the order of the day, which mainly hurts the poor and middle class (whats left of it). Read Shiela Bair’s book (past Chairman of the FDIC) Bull by The Horn – she paints an accurate picture of who caused and who was protected in the recent housing/banking disaster, that is still very much a part of our situation today. There are so many relevant books on this subject it is hard to pick one.

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Reading an Amazon review is far from reading the book – though you are right there is nothing knew about the imperialism of the USA – wikipedia Smedley Butler – the most highly decorated marine of his time. He tells it like it is. I would like to read his book “War is a Racket”. It mainly reiterates (in his time) what is being said about wealth and power in the hands of the .1% who control the planet – the politics the USA, and most of the stuff we superficially argue about as important. Actually, of little consequence, as it is promoted by the Corporate media to keep our attention off of the .1% psychopathic elites and the .9% who cow tow to them. That is the point of Chompsky – and I happen to be reading another of his books right now “What We Say Goes” which is why i find it so easy to defend him – besides that he is has solid credentials, and his writings the past few decades are what many political activists, academics, and journalists are now espousing. Particularly since WikiLeaks came on the scene. Chompsky has debated many many distinguished academics on the right and left, – and frankly he makes them sound like delusional high school children.

I will go to my local LDS book store and see if I can find a book that Keith suggests by Cleon Skousen- but frankly I don;t really have high expectations about it – and if it is based on the earth being 4K or 5K years old – well I will probably find it mostly fictional, with mighty few foot notes or factual references. I don’t see where Cleon has even visited Israel – much less speak or having been recognized as an authority on the Israeli occupation and their continued destruction of the Palestinian people. But apparently Keith considers him a moral authority on the Israel occupation of Palestine. i find it difficult to accept that the USA Israel or any country can claim moral authority when they commit atrocities against American Indians, Vietnamese, Iraqi and Afghanistan women and children, and Palestinians whose only crime is being in the way of the Corporate interests who demand the land and natural resources under the peoples feet, (usually after genocide by inciting civil war or through a brutal dictator). Primarily so the .1% (ie: rummy and chenney) can satisfy their pathological greed and continue burning up the world. But I am open to other views about this, if its something more than fiction or faith based political theories, and delusional ideology.

Peer reviews are not about finding someone who agrees with you – it is about having ones research (books and articles) reviewed and questioned by independent experts in the same field – its why serious academics use footnotes, references, and historical facts to support their assertions and conclusions. When 99 % of scientists agree that the earth is warming because of CO2 and methane and they have peer reviewed research in their respective field of marine biology, earth science, in botanical science, in atmospheric science, in oceanographic science, glacier science, etc. etc analyzed by independent specialist who are also in their specific field of study (world wide), that is peer review. Then a social science doctor comes out and says he has no evidence of global warming and he has never even written a peer reviewed article on the matter, or for a professional journal, and FOX puts him on TV denying climate change – well that’s the difference. Otherwise it is just a blog with a fancy banner attached over some think tank “name” paid for by the 1% to promote doubt and misunderstanding for political/economic objectives. For climate change it is the Koch brothers and other fossil fuel burning interests, and they lots of money.

After doing some reading on Wikipedia – which assumes the earth is more than 4K years old – the people referred to as Semitics apparently entered through Mesopotamia. Derived theologically from the Epic of Gilgamesh (and related supposedly to one of Noah flood sons, though the chronology has to be completely skewed into a 5K year old world history that does not include anything but the middle east) which is quite a stretch – then if you look at the biblical interpretation, depending on the version, i suppose the Semitics would have to have begun inhabiting the Arabian peninsula about 3K year ago. That i suppose is based on the world being created 5K years ago. So i suppose from that perspective it was the point from which Adam, and then 10 generations later the Semitics came on the scene. Which also assumes people actually lived for 700 years back then. Though i am no expert on how mankind evolved from the loins of Adam and Eve 4-5 thousand years ago into the various ethnics of African, European, Chinese, India, Australians and native Americans – I suppose I have a different perspective on that.

However, Joseph Campbell – world renown archaeologist – had the Semitics coming into the middle east and Arabia from the steppe (present day Kazakhstan) as herders who naturally swept through the Arabian peninsula about 3K – 4K BC eventually settling primarily in the southern region of Arabia, and simultaneously in the western Arabian peninsula (present day Palestine/Syria/Jordan/Israel) generally referred to as Cannan and to a lesser extent in the near east. It was the dominant lingua- franca of the time. Eventually the Southern Semitics swept up about 2500 – 2000 BC and merged with the near eastern Semitics of the Mesopotamia region and formed the Akkadian empire (considered civilizations first empire). Eventually the Sumerians were absorbed into the Akkadian speaking Assyro-Babylonian population of Mesopotamia by around 2000 BC. The Sumerians were a non- Semitic people who developed the first large city civilization around 4,500 BC in the southern Mesopotamia (current day Iraq). I don’t think anyone has connected the Sumerians to Noah, because they were dominating the middle east region long before the so called flood that wiped out practically all life on the planet, including the Chinese and India. Wow according to creationism – those people sure made babies fast !!

It is estimated that at least 80% of man kinds most precious and oldest artifacts from the cradle of civilization were destroyed when we invaded Iraq and the museums of antiquities through out Baghdad were consequently looted as marines stood by with orders from Bremmer to do nothing but watch. Of course that was after we told the Iraqi army (a natural coalition of Sunni and Shiite) to go home (30% of the population) and i guess eat cake. In fact the entire government infrastructure from grade school teachers to universities, traffic, utility, public health, local government agencies, transportation, oil, commerce, ALL ministries were fired with no pay, just go home and drink tea. That’s an example of shutting down the government. Then the looting began (people get aggravated when they can no longer flush their toilet, or drink water, or get food), and BTW we made sure ALL the thousands of warehouses with munitions were unlocked and unprotected – typical strategy of forcing everyone to kill each other for food and water to get them out of our way. Which usually works in 3rd world African and small Latin American countries. Tragic ignorance and monumental hubris on the part of the little “w” and his cabinet of war criminals – we created the absolute worst conditions – which is why 95% of the population even today say they were far better off under Saddam then the LIBERATION the USA was said to bring them. Rummy’s response: “well stuff happens” “democracy is sometimes messy” Frankly Rummy, Chenney, Wolferitz and Fife should be brought up on war crimes. Read O Neil’s book (Treasury Secretary at the time) or many many others. And little “w” well he was riding his mountain bike and chopping sage brush on the ranch, making jokes with the press about WMD, while marines were begging for at least blast shields under their HumVees or body armor, while Rummy was telling them to man up, and little “w” was making sure the richest 3% were given massive tax cuts, Corporate taxes slashed, with massive credits and contracts being handed to friends, and then saying he would cut infantry pay $75 a month if Congress wouldn’t pass his tax cuts. It was hideous. Statue of limitations continues to pass and more executive documents are released every year. Read the books – there has to be at least 20 on this subject alone. it was the biggest man caused tragedy of our time – other than man made climate change, and there is a huge segment of America that is simply oblivious. And many still deny either has even occurred – you have to hand it to the propaganda makers – they are effective !! No – there is nothing new about that – we just let it happen again and again because it enriches a tiny few while the taxpayers get goosebumps believing play like – the USA has the moral high ground – and aren’t we great – the leading Democracy of the world, spreading freedom, and free enterprise wherever we go. When nothing could be further from the truth.

Hows that for a rant ?? Ha, ha

The proper way for a propaganda system to work is to insinuate the party line as a presupposition – so you don’t even discuss it, you just accept it, and then to allow, in fact encourage, vigorous debate on the basis of that presupposition

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Noam Chomsky: One of the most important comments on deceit, I think, was made by Adam Smith. He pointed out that a major goal of business is to deceive and oppress the public. By Adam Smith And one of the striking features of the modern period is the institutionalization of that process, so that we now have huge industries deceiving the public—and they’re very conscious about it, the public relations industry.

NC: I mean, I think we all know from personal life, if there’s something you want to do, it’s really easy to convince yourself it’s right and just. You put away evidence that shows that’s not true.

So it’s self-deception but it’s automatic, and it requires significant effort and energy to try to see yourself from a distance. It’s hard to do.

institutions act like individuals in the way they practice internal self-deception.

whether or marry Suzy, for instance—you’re in a deliberative stage. And you are considering options more or less rationally.

Now, once you decide to go with Suzy, you’re in the instrumental phase; you don’t want to hear about the negative side. Your mood goes up, and you delete all the negative stuff and you’re just, “Suzy’s the one.

There’s an analogy here to individual self-deception. Information is often somewhere in the organism; it’s just well-hidden. It’s well down in the unconscious. And it’s often inaccessible because you build up firewalls against it.

We find repeatedly now—in wasps, in birds and in monkeys—that when organisms realize they’re being deceived, they get pissed off. And they often attack the deceiver. Especially if the deceiver is over-representing him or herself. If you’re under-representing and showing yourself as having less dominance than you really have, you’re not attacked. And the ones that do attack you are precisely those whose dominance status you are attempting to expropriate or mimic.

we respond to hearing our own voice with greater arousal than we do to hearing another human’s voice.

The deniers also showed the highest levels of galvanic skin response to all stimuli. It’s like they were primed to do it. And inventing reality is a little bit more of a relaxed enterprise I suppose. Inventing = projection

But back to your question, among animals, birds in particular have been shown to have the same physiological arousal that humans do—arousal to their own species song, and more arousal to their particular voice.

NC: So higher for their species and still higher for themselves?

What he says is that there are elaborate techniques of self-deception to try to build a framework in which we can justify things like, say, invading or overthrowing the government of Guatemala, on the basis of some new objective. And it’s done by making everything simple. You have to make it clearer than the truth.

I’ve been appalled lately when I pass a newsstand and there’s some article, “China, the Next Threat,” saying, “Now we’ve got to mobilize all our energy against China”—and they’re talking military.

NC: That’s interesting, because the threat of China is not military.

You look at history and understand why—China’s been around for 4,000 years and just doesn’t give a damn. So the West screams, and they just go ahead and take over a big piece of Saudi or Iranian oil. You can’t intimidate them—it’s driving people in Washington berserk.

But, you know, of all the major powers, they’ve been the least aggressive militarily.

RT: No, the obvious threat—I mean, the obvious “threat”—is economic.

NC: And I think they plan it carefully. Like when President Hu Jintao was in Washington. When he left, he was going on a world trip. The next stop was Saudi Arabia. And that’s a slap in the face to the US. It’s just saying, “We don’t care what you say.”

I think it is fair to say that the media adopt the basic framework of state and private power, mostly uncritically. It’s not hard to demonstrate, and plenty has been written revealing these unfortunate but typical patterns — which are by no means new.

Noam Chomsky: A person who issues that charge that someone adheres to the principle “do as I say, not as I do” (the actual charge) has three options: (1) produce an example; (2) withdraw the charge; (3) take the coward’s way out and slink away silently.

Noam Chomsky: It’s not a matter of public relations and rhetorical style but of actions. It’s the actions and policies that have left the US government remarkably isolated, feared and often hated to an extent with no historical precedent. International polls show that very clearly, in the past few years.

Noam Chomsky: I’m no expert on this matter. It is, however, pretty clear that the problems are severe and perhaps dire. Right now, huge numbers of people cannot obtain even drinking water, and the situation is likely to become worse with predicted climate change and failure to take the actions that are necessary.

Washington, D.C.: I’ve read a lot of your works and i can’t figure out where exactly to locate you in terms of political philosophy: social democrat, socialist, communist? One useful barometer would be to know if you believe in a right to private property? if, yes, what are the limits of that right?

Noam Chomsky: The terms have been so debased that they are hardly usable. I think a decent society should protect rights to private property within limits, but not concentrations of private power that infringe on the freedom and rights of others, including exploitation of labor, and that convert any democratic forms into what have been called sometimes “hierarchical democracies,” like ours, in which some have vastly greater influence over public policy than others. Spelling all of this out is a complex matter that raises many issue and problems that are impossible to address here.

”When it comes to firearm deaths in the United States, we have the equivalency of twenty one Benghazis each day. Little is said about it until there is an attempt to do something about it and the answer always comes back NO! This makes me think that the concern over Benghazi is nothing but cheap partisan bullshit.”Ph

Rick makes some good points – thanks Rick – about government pension funds. I didn’t consider the perspective you describe. Thanks !! Pension funds not surprisingly are still recovering from tranched pension securities (debt collateralized securities, mortgage backed securities, etc) and other fancy names given to bundle a bunch of short term baby boomer pension fund and mortgage liquidity secured with debt into the hands of institutional level people whose fancy credentials gave the impression they were using something other than a crude spreadsheet (if that) riddled with absurd weakness, outrageous lack of trend analysis, and fundamental DENIAL of financial principles – to manage our money. Those people simply had the authority to LIE for profit and play like they were doing their work based primarily on their brazenly outrageous salaries, and apparently disdain for their own credentials that PERMITED them to obfuscate TRUTH which merely served to feed their own pig for profit – finally it popped and the taxpayers had to use their empty bag to pick up bankers mess but only after the guys with the titles took the best cuts, and skated away., looking for more ways to get corrupt bonuses.

At the MACRO level, pension management amounted to churning for profit and churning credit default swaps (insurance payoffs to banks) for remuneration on lousy vastly OVER RATED investments, amounting to enormous profits to the oligarchs with huge bonuses to their upper management investment managers. Outrageous profit, while the people for whom the funds, mortgages, and inflated values were structured for in the first place, were left holding an empty bag. Our banking industry (at the upper levels) still works with a primal self serving mafia mentality – we don’t even see the really corrupt part – drug laundering – genocide for asset acquisition laundering – trade embargo laundering – nuclear technology laundering – weapons laundering – dictator and IMF and World Bank laundering for fossil resources – it’s massive at that level, infrastructure laundering, XL Pipeline laundering – United Fruit Picking Union Busting laundering – Campaign Fund laundering – propaganda laundering and if you read Howard Zinn you will see it has always been that way the past 150 years. It has obviously gotten somewhat better over the past few hundred years, for both the banking perpetrators (Oligarchs) and their victims (the people, which used to be referred to as the Farmers) because there are more of us to absorb the fallout. The past 7-8 years when fund managers (made outrageous profits on very risk investments that they were selling to as as low risk). That LIE finally required USA taxpayer to step in and FIRST make the very Oligarchs who made the mess – whole again (you know to make up for some of their own ill timed investments) before getting into gold. Then play the fiddle for us as our house values and pension funds lost 50- 80% value and liquidity. The Oligarchs essentially took the polish off our shoes AND pension funds right in the middle of a song.

In a reality based world (with even crude spreadsheet models) the Oligarchs knew the investment they were churning were supported by outlandish speculation and complete denial of systemic risk. But they were dealing with someone else’s money, general public funds, mortgages, T Bill cash from China, pension funds, making oblivious and discarding the REAL risk over time, with fancy titles, outrageous bonuses to themselves, knowing they had the FULL campaign funded faith of the US government behind their mistakes. Private wealth and power were generated from outlandish speculation on short tern risk for private profit while ignoring long term systemic risk that accompanies long term investment by the people. In other words they didn’t do their job – bonused themselves for having the temerity to NOT do their job, let the people hold the empty bag for them, and then demand through elected officials that taxpayers socialize the personal losses that they caused by being corrupt in the first place. All the while simultaneously opposing even a modestly complex spreadsheet (regulation) to access long term risk using warehouse and clearinghouse tools that put a bead moving targets. Erecting obstacles under red herring titles of “free market” and “freedom from and onerous and evil big government regulation”. It was a significant failure, because it was based on denial by certain people who were making lots of money by being in denial, and no one has the power to call them on it. We trusted them. The stronger the DENIAL – finally the bigger the problem – until the pig popped. yada yada.

Nevertheless – collective bargaining is NEEDED- that’s the point of VW it’s the point for a lot of industries in first world countries not only auto workers in the USA. You have to know something is wrong when a family of four have both spouses holding down 80 hour a week jobs – (not counting nursing someone) and they require food stamp assistance to make ends meet when one of them misses work from the flu, a broken finger or a sick kid. Wage subsidies to the Corporatactacy (food stamps) that are demanded by WORKING Americans has brought the American people to their knees before the Plutocracy. The Corporations have been skating away from minimum wage issues by crushing unions for a right to bargain th e past 20 years, and its affects are obvious. I don;t mean one is exclusive of the other – but fair is fair, and the number of fast food and service jobs is very different for the baby boomer glut that fed the system three decades ago. Those are often career jobs for people who DO actually work every day.